261: Defend the Gate, Activate! (Free 4/5)

Verstappen had a strong momentum in this race, and on the first lap there was no turbulence in front of him, and he pulled away from Hamilton behind him by 1.8 seconds on the first lap.

Qin Miao followed 1.4 seconds behind Hamilton.

Just like Hamilton couldn't keep up with Verstappen in front, Qin Miao couldn't keep up with Hamilton in front.

After all, Qin Miao uses neutral tires, and it is understandable that the speed cannot keep up with the car in front.

By the end of the first lap, the entire formation had been completely straightened out, and all the drivers had lined up to pass the monitoring points on the track.

On the third lap, Verstappen directly refreshed the fastest lap in the field when he crossed the line, and it didn't take long for the director to give comparative data, Verstappen was 0.391 seconds faster than Hamilton in the Zandvoort circuit, and 0.919 seconds faster than Qin Miao's lap.

The gap between the top three drivers is widening at a rapid pace.

For Qin Miao, the bad news is that he can't keep up with the two forces in front of him at all with the speed of neutral tires, and the good news is that on the fifth lap, Qin Miao has more than 3 seconds of clean air in front of him.

With a difference of 3 seconds from Hamilton, the turbulence of Hamilton's car has the least impact on the aerodynamic layout of Qin Miao's car.

Another piece of good news is that although Qin Miao is on neutral tires, Gasly, who is on soft tires behind him, was also pulled away by Qin Miao for more than 2 seconds in the time of four laps.

The rider in the rear couldn't put any pressure on Qin Miao.

The race had just started four laps, and Qin Miao turned on the cruise mode.

In fact, the two Ferraris behind Gasly could indeed pose a threat to Qin Miao if they were not blocked by Gasly.

At least if there will be no tire gap, Qin Miao will be pulled away by Qin Miao for more than two seconds in four laps.

But it's still the same old problem, this season's cars are too difficult to follow, and when you turn a corner within a second with the car in front, the rear car loses 60% of the downforce of the aerodynamic components, especially Zandelvot is still a track with many corners and it is difficult to overtake.

In short, although the starting advantage was not withdrawn at the beginning, at least the result after the start was satisfactory to Qin Miao and Meiben Teams.

From this point on, the team began to pay attention to the gap between Hamilton and Verstappen in front of them, and began to help Hamilton calculate when they could try to make a pit stop to cut Verstappen in front of them.

At this time, Hamilton can safely and boldly try under cut, after all, there is a defensive gate behind him, Qin Miao gives himself a backdrop.

If Red Bull doesn't want to see the tail of Qin Miao's car after leaving the pit, what he can do is to let Verstappen take advantage of the advantage of his tires now, and widen the gap between himself and Qin Miao to more than 20 seconds or less than 10 seconds, so that Verstappen will not fall behind Qin Miao's car when he pits and then comes out.

So now after the game starts, the Red Bull side is asking Verstappen to speed up in TR, and Frankie's side is to let Qin Miao run his own rhythm, as for reminding Qin Miao to keep the gap between himself and Verstappen in front of him within 20 seconds?

There is no need to mention it at all, because Qin Miao's speed is not so slow, and Verstappen's soft tires can't last that long.

Crucially, Verstappen had a Hamilton behind him who was constantly putting pressure on him, and he was able to pay attention to the gap between Hamilton's car and himself.

After that, the attraction between the drivers in front of the race disappeared for a short time, and the only thing worth watching was Pérez in the back constantly overtaking the drivers in front of him.

Although it is still interesting to watch the Mars rover sling the geocentric car, it is actually as it should be, and it can even be said that if Pérez in Red Bull does not pass Latifi, Mick Schumacher and the like, this is not normal.

On lap 12, the gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen in front of him had been widened to 10 seconds, while the gap between Hamilton and Verstappen was still within 2 seconds.

It's almost a position that is not affected by the wake of Verstappen's cars, but is a constant threat to Verstappen.

"The gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen is widening a little too fast, right? Does Qin Miao still have a chance to compete for the championship in this game? After seeing the situation on the field at this time, Fei Ge asked with some concern: "Mei Ben won't give up Qin Miao directly, just to let Qin Miao help Hamilton block Verstappen for a while, right?" ”

"No, it won't." Zhou Haoran didn't even look down at the real-time tire data on the laptop in front of him, as one of Qin Miao's fans, after the qualifying session ended yesterday, Zhou Haoran knew that Qin Miao still had a few sets of tires in reserve, so after Fei Ge asked, he directly explained: "Qin Miao still has a new set of red tires now, Mei Ben here should be ready to let Qin Miao stop Huang Hong, and when Qin Miao enters the pit stop to change tires, the gap between Gasly and Qin Miao in the rear should be more than 20 seconds, At that time, Qin Miao, who is in the light oil state, has the possibility of catching up with Hamilton and Verstappen with soft tires. ”

"That's right, and with the strength that Qin Miao showed at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, it is not impossible for Qin Miao in the final stage to defeat these two people to win the championship." Brother Bing interjected at the end.

On lap 20, the good news came for Meben.

The soft tyres of the two drivers in front of them began to fail, and the speed slowed down significantly, and according to the data given by the director, the two drivers in front of them only had an average of 30% of the tyre margin left.

The tires of Qin Miao in the rear are just over 55% worn, and as the tires of the two drivers in front of him begin to deteriorate, Qin Miao has been faster than the two drivers in front of him since lap 18, and as he runs more and more laps on the track, the speed of this pursuit is getting faster and faster.

"Good! Qin Miao's speed has risen! Fei Ge raised his arms and shouted.

On lap 21, Mercedes called Hamilton, whose tyres had already deteriorated, back to prepare for Hamilton to pit and try to cut Verstappen.

Hamilton came out with a neutral tire and landed 15 seconds behind Qin Miao.

On the Red Bull side, Verstappen naturally responds to all changes with the same, and since you Hamilton have pitted, then I will follow you to pit too.

As for Qin Miao?

Now the gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao is 10 seconds, and Verstappen will fall behind Qin Miao about 10 seconds after making a pit stop.

As long as Qin Miao doesn't really give up chasing the championship, and directly comes to block Verstappen with a wave of deceleration, Verstappen will have at least 10 seconds of clean air.

And when Verstappen relied on the 10 seconds of clean air to catch up with Qin Miao, Qin Miao's tires were almost degraded, and he had to pit for three laps at most.

So Red Bull doesn't have much pressure to pit stop at this time.